Look who got his training wheels off

At four and two-third years old, Jonah can now ride his bike without training wheels.

So proud of him.

(Photos taken Thursday, April 12, 2007.)

a full plate

I feel like I have a lot on my plate right now.

On top of the regular stuff (being a SAHM, design team stuff for MSS, teaching/organizing the large group stuff for R.O.X.), I've got a few things that need to be organized/created/taken care of.

#1: Austin's teacher at school is getting married and asked me to make her wedding invitations. I have the design okayed, the supplies purchased (except for the glue stick that I was suppose to pick up at MSS this afternoon, but forgot-- too many other goodies there distracted me! ;) ) and now I just need to print them out and put them together.

#2: My trip to Mississauga next weekend (next weekend??!). Wow, it's coming up fast. Not a lot I need to get ready, but just the thought of being away for 3 days overwhelms me a little.

#3: Our church's Spring Carnival on the 27th. I'm in charge of organizing the evening, so I need to find volunteers to man the activities and generally host the evening.

#4: MSS Super Scrap Day on the 28th. Totally looking forward to this, but need to get some stuff ready for it.

#5: Austin's birthday party in May. He doesn't want to go bowling again this year, so I suggested a type of Amazing Race theme with clues hidden around town and different "tasks" to perform in order to get the next clue and eventually find the "pit stop".

#6: A 5km walk/run/ride for the Congo scheduled for May 26th. A team from our church went to the Congo in February and came back and spoke about their experience. They shared how there are women there who've been abandonned by their husbands and, instead of turning to prostitution to feed their families, there's a sewing course that they can take. Then, they can "purchase" a sewing machine and pay for it as they get paid for the sewing they do. I'd like to raise money to purchase sewing machines for this program for these women. My friend, Darlene, and I walked out the route last night. I'm really excited about this.

#7: General get my house/yard ready for Spring stuff. Cameron suggested a work day for tomorrow (he and Austin have the day off-- no school!) and I'm quite excited to tackle some projects. Let's just hope Cam catches my enthusiasm. ;)

So lots on the go, but lots of good stuff.

Happy Easter!

This afternoon, I decorated eggs with the kids (it went surprisingly better than I'd thought it would-- the positive side of expecting the worst! ;) )



Tonight, we're going to my SIL's church to watch a play (she and my BIL have offered to babysit the kids for us-- can't say no to that!)



Tomorrow will be a full day: sunrise service at 6:45am, followed by breakfast at church, then first service, then Sunday school, the home for a quick lunch, then driving 1 1/2 hours to Winnipeg to celebrate Easter with my mom.

Wishing you all a very happy Easter, filled with much joy & laughter.

Good Friday

We had a combined Good Friday church service this morning which was really good.

The worship was great, if a bit loud (we mistakenly sat near the front, by the large speakers. On the upside, our kids making noise didn't bother anyone. ;) )

The message, though, connected with me. So much so that I longed to sit there and think about it, even after the service was done. (Unfortunately, my hubby and three kids didn't let that happen...)

The pastor spoke about forgiveness and how forgiving others is a choice that sets us free. It made me want to think about anyone that I haven't forgiven and ask "Why not? Why would I want to hold on to pain, resentment, anger, hurt and bitterness?" And it made me want to release those things, offer forgiveness and be set free.

And it especially made me thankful for a Saviour who died for me (& beat death & rose again!), who forgives me for every sinful and wicked thing I do, who gently asks me to forgive others who've hurt me and who gives me the strength that I need to do so.

Spring...not so much

Well, I don't know if we got our spring last week and have now fast-forwarded to winter again (if so, NOT GOOD!!) but it has been cold this week.

So, I'm staying indoors and thinking about different things.

Thinking of hanging my new picture frames over my bed and making a blanket to fold up at the end of the bed. And maybe a bed skirt. But then I'll start thinking.... Hmmm, our mattress and boxspring is getting a little old (11 years this month), so maybe we should think about replacing them. Then, maybe instead of a boxspring, I could get a cool bed from IKEA. And then I wouldn't need a bedskirt. Just some cool baskets to slide under the bed...

Thinking about starting to go through our closets. Freshening up the spring clothes. Seeing what the kids ourgrew. Putting stuff aside for a garage sale. But then I'll think... It doesn't pay to do that before Easter, as we'll be busy over the next few days. Besides, it's not warm enough for spring clothes yet anyway.

Thinking about the diet I started on Tuesday and whether or not I'll hop off of it for the Easter gatherings or not.

Thinking about scrapbooking and working on layouts that I have ideas for, but wondering why I spend so much of my "me time" on the computer.

Thinking, thinking, thinking....

A sometimes time-consuming, not overly productive process.

Spring is here!!

Last week was Spring Break and we definitely had a nice break in the weather here (for the first few days of the week, anyway!)

On Monday evening, the kids and I walked to the park. It was great to get some photos outside.

Here are a few of my favourites:



Sage pulling our wagon (I'm not even sure why we bring it along-- she never wants to ride in it and it takes a while for her to pull it!)



The boys on their bikes. (We are going to take Jonah's training wheels off a.s.a.p.-- he hardly uses them at all!)



Throwing leaves into the rushing Dead Horse Creek.


Looking for squirrels. I couldn't believe this photo. Sage looks so grown up here!


Okay, a very messy brother and sister. Austin ignored my advice of not biking down the hill into the very, very wet beach-volleyball court and got stuck. And while I was helping him get out, Sage came running down the hill, planted both feet into the wet, wet sand and fell forward onto her hands and knees!

Skating carnival

Well, we had the boys' skating carnival dress rehearsal last Thursday evening and the carnival took place on Saturday evening.

The theme was That's Reality and was based on different reality television shows. Austin and Jonah were in different groups, but both skated to the Survivor theme song and followed a course.

Here are a few of my favourite photos from the event:

This is Jonah before is dress rehearsal. Love this kid!

Here are the two of them before the carnival Saturday night. (Check out their buffs!)

Sage was so fun to watch as she danced along with the skaters' music!

Jonah had to skate under the pole as part of his survivor course.

My favourite part of Austin's course was at the end where his group skated around in a circle holding hands and then put up their hands in the air.

Lovin' this:

Usually, as per our routine, after lunch, Sage goes down for a nap, Jonah has t.v. time and I spend some time on the computer or scrapbooking. Well, I wasn't liking being so separated from Jonah, so we got a second t.v. and moved it downstairs, shortly after Xmas.

However, Jonah didn't want to watch t.v. downstairs with me.

Until this week.

I decided to move my chair from my bedroom to the basement, so Jonah would have a cozy spot to sit. Now he can still watch t.v. and interact with me and I can have some "guilt-free" me time.
It's a win-win situation.

Think Spring!!

I'm not sure if today is the last day of winter or the first day of spring, but either way, I'm totally ready for spring!

I went with a friend to Winnipeg today and we went to Costco (I love Costco!) where I picked up a few goodies for spring: a pair of denim capris, a green top and matching sandals for me and a green skirt for Sage.

I took Austin to register him for baseball this evening and it totally got me remembering last year’s baseball season. So I thought I’d go and look for a few of my favourite pictures from spring 2006:











Here's looking forward to a great spring of 2007!

What to say,

what to say...

Not too much going on today. I find I have a hard time looking forward to Mondays. It's such a same old, same old kind of day. It's the day that I recover the house from the weekend & do my laundry. I usually aim to get all of my laundry washed, dried, folded & put away in the same day, but that doesn't always happen.

I think my favourite day of the week is Sunday. Going to church, praising God and then serving him down in R.O.X. Yesterday's lesson was really good-- it was about communion and how Jesus wants us to remember Him and what He did for us by participating in communion. We told the story of the last supper that Jesus had with his friends. We asked 11 of the boys to help out as disciples and they did a great job!





(In case you're wondering, we're barefoot, because we also reinacted Jesus washing his disciples' feet.)

After church, we usually go home and have lunch. Then it's relaxing time. Sage and Cameron nap, the boys do computer or watch t.v. and I scrapbook. For the past few weeks Cameron & I have been taking The Marriage Course at our church, so we head back there at 3, where the kids get to play in the gym with other kids and babysitters. Sometimes after the course, we pick up supper and take it home, but last night we met some friends at Boston Pizza for supper, which was really fun.

After supper, we watch The Amazing Race and the kids go to bed. Then it's an evening of relaxing for Cam and me. Reading, playing cards or watching t.v.

Sundays are definitely a great day.

Gotta love

1. Saving $50. (I was working on some wedding invitations that require seven rows of zigzag stitching across them and my sewing machine started acting up. I figured out that my extra spool of thread on top of the machine was threading itself into the machine. I tried to pull out as much as I could, but it still wasn't working properly, so I actually took the side of my machine off and got all of the thread out. (There was a lot!) And now, it's working again! ) I say $50, because that's what I cost me last time I took it in to get serviced.

2. The screwdriver holder that Cameron made and put up behind our storage room door. Made it a lot easier to find a screwdriver to do #1.

3. Baking with my kids. I'm not good at playing with my kids. Interacting while they play, yes. Actually getting in there and playing, no. So when I bake with them, I feel like I'm accomplishing many things, including having yummy desserts for my family to enjoy.

4. Being on the design team for MSS. Getting new supplies and making layouts that I really like. Being on a team with such wonderful members.

5. Austin and Jonah start practicing for the skating carnival tonight. Last year's was so much fun-- can't wait for this year's.

6. Having a MIL who agreed to watch my kids for me next week so I can go into the city with a friend. (And next month so I can attend a children's ministries conference in Ontario.)

7. A&W Diet Root beer.

8. Leftovers from yesterday, so I don't need to think about what to make for supper tonight.

9. A daughter who was cranky this morning, but has now been sleeping for over an hour and a half this afternoon.

10. Warmer temperatures which equals melting snow.

Smiles

Lots of stuff going on this week...

Here are a few things that have made me smile:

Having coffee a couple of mornings with friends.
Going to MSS on Tuesday evening with Susan and Anita and following that up with a trip to Tim Horton's.

Volunteering in Austin's classroom and having his teacher tell me how much she enjoys having him in her class.

Watching Austin read a story to Sage before her nap.

Jonah. Just all the cute things he does (here he was closing Sage's door on me while I tried to take pictures of Austin reading to Sage.)

Getting an encouraging email from a friend.

Being asked if I would attend a children's conference in Mississauga, Ontario.

Dressing Sage in the outfit I got her on ebay.

Watching Jonah & Austin at their last skating lesson.

Taking the kids to movie night at Austin's school.

Going glowbowling last night with our church family.

Looking forward to more smiles on the weekend!

A little something about me...

I got this list of questions from Eva's blog and thought I'd answer them, too. (I know, I'm such a copycat!)

1. What is your occupation? Stay at home mom
2. What color are your socks right now? grey wool ones with holes in the bottom
3.What are you listening to right now? computer humming
4.What was the last thing you ate? a nanaimo bar
5. Can you drive a stick shift? Yes, I miss it.
6.If you were a crayon, what color would you be? midnight blue
7. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? Anita
8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? The person whose blog I lifted this from, yes.
9. How old are you today? 34
10. Favorite drink? skim milk
11. What is you favorite sport to watch? baseball
12. Have you ever dyed your hair? not permanently
13. Pets? nope
14. Favorite food? french fries, hamburgers
15. What was the last movie you watched? Lucky Seven (with Patrick Dempsey-- love him!)
16. Favorite day of the year? My birthday
17. Favorite things to do at home? scrapbook, computer, reading, hang out with my family
18. What was your favorite toy as a child? my doll Mary
19. Which is your favorite: spring or fall? Spring
20. Cherries or Blueberries? neither-- strawberries
21. Living arrangements? in a house with Cameron, Austin, Jonah & Sage
22. When was the last time you cried? Last Thursday evening
23. What is on the floor of your closet? clothes hamper, bins of clothes, box of books
24. What did you do last night? Went to bed at 8:15!
25. Favorite smell? Newborn baby
26.What are you afraid of? Losing my kids.
27. How many siblings? 2 wonderful brothers!
28. How many vehicles have you owned? 5 plus 3 trucks while I've been married to Cameron
29. Number of keys on your key ring? um, four?
30. How many years at your current job? almost 8
31. Favorite day of the week? Sunday
32. How many provinces have you lived in? 1
33. Favorite holiday? Christmas
34. Ever driven a motorcycle or heavy machinery? yes, dirt bike
35. Do you like Rollercoasters? yes
36. How long have you been with your spouse? married 11 years next month
37. What is your pet peeve? bad grammar/spelling
38. Favorite comfort food? chocolate
39. Are you afraid of death? no
40. What was your favorite teacher's name? a tie: Mr. Tinman & Mrs. Leonard
41. Where was your favorite vacation? BC for my brother's wedding 2 1/2 years ago
42. Is your glass half full, or half empty? half full
43. What is your favorite body part? um.......
44. What do you do for fun? scrapbook, hang out with friends
45. What is your resolution for this year? to be more joyful

Thanks for reading!

Snow much fun!

LOL!

I was scrapbooking with some friends a couple of weeks ago and we were looking at some snow pictures and saying how years ago, we would have scrapbooked them:

"On such and such a date, we went to the park to play in the snow. You had such a good time..."

And the title would have been something like: "Snow much fun" or "I love you snow much."

And now, more of us scrapbook not so much the event, but the moment, or who our kids are, what they're like. And that's all good.

But, I still like the event scrapbooking, too. I'm good with it. I want to remember that day in February 2007 when we went to the park, who came with us, what we did, how much fun we had...

And hey, we live in Southern Manitoba, where snow is a huge reality for us. And therefore, I have to take pictures of it. And then scrapbook them.

But I don't do the punny titles. Ever.

Here are some shots I took this morning. The boys love playing on our neighbour's yard, where they dug a tunnel through a snowhill. Cameron was shoveling snow. Sage & I came out to help.







See, I think by scrapbooking these moments (or events, such as they are) that the kids will get a glimpse later at what life was like when they were seven and four and how even though Daddy was quite busy most of the time, he would take some time to play with them outside.

And that's what I hope they'll remember.

Hero

On Saturday, the Winkler police department were sponsoring Spiderman. They'd invited him to come and do a presentation and sign autographs, etc.

We waited until Sage was done her nap and then hurried to the Southland Mall. We caught the tail end of his presentation and then got in line. Jonah had no desire to see Spiderman, so Cameron walked around the mall with him and Sage while I stood in line with Austin.



They were so great about posing for pictures and Austin got a signed card from Spiderman. He was quite thrilled.



I loved what the card said on the back. Good rules to live by. Nice to see a superhero promoting them.

Oh and sootherless, day two: an update. Sage did a little better today. No crying about the soother but she did ask for it about three times. It really takes her quite a long time to fall asleep without it, both at naptime and in the evening. But we're plugging on...

Look who's a big girl!

So, this morning, Sage comes up to me with her soother and points out the fact that it has a hole in it. And I thought: "Here's our chance to get rid of it!" So, I suggested because it's broken, that she should put it in the garbage. And she did.

I even got a picture of her putting it in the garbage.






What I didn't get pictures of, however, were the tears and drama that followed all morning when she'd ask for her soother. I'd remind her that she put it in the garbage and she'd cry and say: "But I need it! I need my soother!"



Then, at naptime, when she always uses it to fall asleep, it was a very difficult time. More tears. More drama. More: "I need it! You get it, Mom!"



And then she actually snuck out of her room and walked to the kitchen garbage where she was going to try to get it back! I wrapped up the garbage and threw it out.

So, it's been a bit of a long day. Nightime routine was minus the crying (thankfully!) but it took her a LONG time to fall asleep.

Hopefully it'll get easier after this!

What a great...

scrapbooking weekend!

We hosted our scrapbooking weekend! We hosted our monthly online crop this weekend at MSS and it was great. Lots of challenges. Lots of fun.

Susan came over on Friday night and, after a not-so-quick run to Walmart and the Shoppe, we scrapbooked together until after midnight.

On Saturday, I was able to scrapbook in snatches here and there and I just finished up a layout tonight.

I loved the challenges and loved getting #1 through 9 done out of 10. Don't know why that excites me, but it does! So here what I got done this weekend:


This layout was for the challenge I posted, which was to put a title on your photo.


The mini book I created (and fulfilled Marcy's challenge to use 7 products from different manufacturers.)


Austin's field trip layout for Liz's challenge to use something you'd normally throw away on a layout (I used the map of the park) and Val's challenge to combine circles and squares.


This layout was for the copycat challenge-- I scraplifted a layout from Anita's gallery.


Marcy challenged us to use negative space on a layout (not a very difficult challenge for me, as I am a fan of negative space.)


And Liz's first challenge was a sketch challenge. I made this layout using her sketch.
Thanks for looking!

10 things

Gratitude.

Ten things that I am grateful for...

1. A God who loves me and knows my name

2, 3, 4. Three beautiful, healthy children.

5. A warm house that I love.

6. That spring is coming (I know it is!!)

7. A husband who's willing to make our marriage work.

8. Great friends.

9. A fun evening planned for tonight with friends, scrapbooking and an online crop at MSS.

10. Sugar-free chocolate.

What are you grateful for?

Telling it like it is...

For a My Life, My scrapbook challenge on MSS, Jen suggested we list 10 of our favourite something (books, movies, whatnot...)

Anita posted her take on the challenge, which was to ask her son to list her 10 favourite things. (You can see her fabulous layout here.)

After signing up for the Kid Perspective class at Big Picture Scrapbooking, I thought this would be an interesting way to include some of my kids' perspectives in my albums.



So, I asked Austin to write down 10 things that I love. Here's what he came up with and the layout I made with it:





Some of the answers surprised me (like #7-- tag!) but all in all I was pretty pleased with his perspective-- especially where he listed himself twice!

Le Festival du Voyageur

Austin's class went on a field trip to le festival du Voyageur yesterday. And of course, I volunteered to go along.

I love going along on his field trips. He has such a great class that I really enjoy connecting with. And I love watching him interact with his friends and take everything in.

I especially enjoyed going to the Festival du Voyageur park in old St. Boniface yesterday. It totally brought back memories of going there on field trips with my school as a kid. And now, Austin's doing the same thing. Kind of a neat thing to connect on.

When we got there, we walked around and looked at the ice sculptures which were amazing.

Then we went to the toboggan run where the kids got to slide down the hill on innertubes.

After that, we had lunch (we brown bagged it!) Then heard an outdoor presentation about transportation in the time of the voyageurs. This was followed by a horse drawn sleigh ride.

Then, the kids enjoyed playing on a large snowhill with a pole with ropes attached to it sticking out of it.

Then we stopped at the Cabane a Sucre (the sugar shack) and saw them make taffy by pouring warm maple syrup on snow and rolling it up on a popsicle stick. This was followed by a presentation of an aboriginal legend of the creation of Lake Manitoba and a craft. After another stop at the washroom, the kids loaded back on to the bus for the ride home to Morden.

Joy in the moment

I found this quote on Ali's blog this afternoon:

"...but the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three on them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4, and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in a hurry to get on to the next things: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less." (Anna Quindlen)

When I read this, it totally struck a chord with me. I do that. I don't live in the moment enough. It seems as if my mind is always already onto the next thing.

And I was also struck by connecting this quote to my word for the year: joy.

I wonder how much more joy I would find in the moment, if I paid more attention to it (really lived in it) and didn't rush it along so much.

Just a thought.

These two...

are so much fun!

I love being a stay-at-home-mom and getting to enjoy Jonah (4 1/2) and Sage (2 1/2) on a daily basis.

Here are a few pictures I took today of things they did that made me smile.

Jonah giving his iguana a "ship ride." (After their baths, Cameron puts the kids in a towel and swings them back and forth. They call this a ship ride.)



Sage "hiding" in her room on her change table.





Jonah and Sage "being animals."



Just hanging around.



Playing Go Fish with Jonah while Sage napped.



Hope your day is full of smiles, too!

Why I scrapbook...

In Ali Edward's ezine today, she challenged everyone to come up with their own personal scrapbooking (or creating) manifesto.

She gave suggestions to finding it and asked us to answer the question: "why do I create?"

I discovered scrapbooking 4 years ago through my good friend, Anita. She was selling scrapbooking supplies at the time and when we had Bible study at their house, I loved looking through her albums. I'd think: "I would love to do this."

So, in May 2003, I dove in, hosted a CM party and haven't looked back. (Well, except during my first trimester when I was pregnant with Sage-- then the very thought of scrapbooking made me feel nauseated. Thankfully, that passed.)

For me, scrapbooking is a lot of things. But mostly, I think, it's telling the story behind the photos in a creative and enjoyable way. I love every aspect of scrapbooking: photographing, cutting, adhering, tearing, embellishing, journaling... When I started scrapbooking, it felt like finally everything clicked and I'd found a craft/artform that I could do and enjoy.

So, for my manifesto, I'd probably say:

1. It's good.
2. Tell the story. (which by the way, can be about the event, or just sharing your thoughts on the subject of your photo.)
3. Use your mistakes to make your layout better.

That's about it for now, but I might add to this later with a little more thought.